Tom Cruise is difficult to hide.
The actor is one of Hollywood’s most recognizable faces, making his transformation into oil tycoon Digger Rockwell for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s “Digger” particularly noticeable.
Much of that change came through prosthetic makeup designed by Kazu Hiro, the four-time Academy Award-winning makeup and prosthetics designer. Two-time National Film Award winner Preetisheel Singh D’Souza, who works in makeup, hair, prosthetics and character design, recently offered her perspective on the work in statements sent to the Daily Planet.
For Singh D’Souza, the transformation works because it does not simply make Cruise look older or dramatically alter his face.
“When you look at Tom Cruise in Digger, that’s a major transformation. Yet so believable, and that to me is the ultimate sign of a great prosthetic transformation,” Singh D’Souza said.
She said transforming a face as recognizable as Cruise’s while keeping the result believable presents a particular challenge.
“As a prosthetic artist myself, I know how incredibly difficult it is to take one of the most recognizable faces in the world and transform it while making it look very realistic,” she said.
Singh D’Souza pointed to several elements of the makeup, including changes to Cruise’s facial volume, skin texture, contours, hairline and apparent age.
“He hasn’t simply made Tom Cruise look older or changed the shape of his face,” she said. “He’s completely reimagined his character.”
The effect, she said, depends partly on those changes remaining understated.
“What I really appreciate is the restraint,” Singh D’Souza said. “The prosthetic is not announcing itself. It just disappears into the transformation.”
There is another challenge beyond making the prosthetics look convincing in a still image: They have to move with the actor.
Singh D’Souza noted the difficulty of making silicone move naturally as an actor speaks, changes expression and performs in close-up.
“I know how challenging it is to make silicone move convincingly with an actor’s face, especially through all the expressions and dialogues and close-ups,” she said.
Cruise has also discussed the amount of time involved in the process. He said the makeup initially took about six hours to apply, followed by about two hours to remove it.
That meant a substantial portion of each production day could be spent in makeup rather than filming.
Cruise said he worked on a system to reduce the application time without changing the makeup itself. His goal, he said, was to spend more time on set and give the production more material to work with.
“I have to be able to do this faster,” Cruise said. “So I designed a whole thing on how I could get it down, not changing the makeup.”
He said the production eventually aimed to reduce the process to about an hour.
The comments provide a look at one of the less visible parts of making “Digger”: the logistical work required when an actor’s appearance is substantially changed for a role.
“Digger” stars Cruise alongside Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg and Jesse Plemons. Robert John Burke, Emma D’Arcy, Burn Gorman and Sophie Wilde also appear in the film.
Iñárritu directed the film from a screenplay by Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone and Sabina Berman. Kazu Hiro serves as the film’s prosthetic makeup designer.
“Digger” is scheduled to open in theaters and IMAX on Oct. 2, 2026.
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